Infuse – The Beautiful Way to Watch Videos Review – A tidy and beautiful video player

Infuse is a cool new video player for iPhone and iPad. Here, you have it: all said and done. But truth be told, I put Infuse to tests it wasn’t expected to match and it passed them with note. Read on for the full review.

Infuse is the brand new app from FireCore, known for its Apple TV prowess, where they showcase their expertise in iOS development. For the technical side, Infuse can play MP4, M4V, MOV, 3GP, ASF, AVI, DVR-MS, FLV, MKV, OGM, OGV, WebM, WMV and WTV videos. Which is a long-winded way to say it can play almost anything you throw at it. On the audio playfield, it plays perfectly AC3 and E-AC3. To round it up, Infuse plays nicely with SRT files (subtitle files,) I’ll give more details about subtitle management below.

The interface is gorgeous. Once you have loaded up some files (via iTunes File Sharing) you see them like some old-school movie tickets, with a “play” piece of paper to rip. It’s neat, and it appeals my inner skeuomorphic design love (which is quite picky: I hate the leathery textures in most Apple branded iOS apps.) Aside from some occasional design treats, the interface is clean and effective, trying to be out of the way to a wonderful watching experience.

Video playback, control-wise, you can play, pause, skip forward or skip backward, in addition to the standard video playback slider to select a precise place. There’s also an in-app brightness control, chapter selector and zoom (normal, crop or stretch) factor. For the audio side, you can just choose the audio track (and of course set the volume as in any other app.) For the subtitles you have a wide range of options. It can automatically download them from Open Subtitles if the file metadata is correct, and will use any SRT file with the same file name as default. Once loaded, you can select its color (among predefined colors, sadly), size, weight, outline, vertical alignment and even encoding! So Japanese lovers, this is your happy day. It also lets you set the offset, in case they are poorly balanced. Fully featured!

Instead of watching some random movie, I put it to an odd test, a Coursera course, with its provided subtitles. And Infuse worked so good I have chosen it instead of AVPlayerHD to watch courses. If I were to ask something for a next update from the developers would be speed adjustment, so I can watch videos at 1.5x and 2x (with audio and subtitles in sync, of course.) That would be extremely awesome. As it stands, the app is “just” awesome.

Oh, I almost forgot. Infuse supports scrobbling via Trakt.tv, which allows you to pick up where you left across devices (for example Mac, Apple TV and iPad!) I don’t use this service… But I will start shortly. If you like to watch movies or series both at home and in your commute, this is so right!

In short:Infuse is a great video player. If you are looking for some Swiss army knife of video playing, this is the correct choice.

NEW! Ignite your video content with Infuse – the beautiful way to watch videos in as many as 14 formats on your iPhone or iPad. No need to convert files! Infuse is retina display-ready, with trakt.tv integration and unmatched subtitle support. Gorgeous interface. Precise controls. And 1080p silky-smooth playback.

Are you looking for a flexible video player that plays more formats? Infuse is the only video player app that “fuses” the gap between your iTunes and other content – so you can watch virtually anything you want, no matter the format. Yup, that means you can say ta-ta to wasting hours of precious movie-watching time converting your files.

Even better? The Infuse interface is jaw-droppingly sexy. It’s truly a beautiful way to complement the visual appeal of your favorite films, music videos and TV programs.

After all, you want to ENJOY watching your videos, don’t you – instead of struggling with an ugly interface, a clunky UX or the inflexibility of the standard video player?

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Made for film buffs, design enthusiasts and anyone whose eyes are slowly morphing into screen-shaped rectangles. Check out the screenshots below.

If your question isn’t answered here, head on over to firecore.com, where email support is always available.

? Can I play content I've synced through iTunes with Infuse?
Yes, Infuse displays both synced content as well as manually transferred content together in a single place.

? Will Infuse open the videos I get online, like email attachments and Dropbox downloads?
Yes, video email attachments and Dropbox downloads can be viewed through Infuse.

? What’s the maximum resolution Infuse can handle?
Infuse performs great with videos up to 1080p 30fps H.264/AVC. It’s designed to play almost any file size beautifully, without any interruptions or stuttering.

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Metadata and artwork displayed by Infuse are supplied by TheMovieDB and TheTVDB, which are free and community maintained movie and TV show databases.

Handcrafted by FireCore in Denver, CO.

See a demo at: firecore.com/infuse

Feel free to tweet suggestions or problems to us at @InfuseApp

Screenshots

Ruben Berenguel is finishing his PhD in Mathematics while writing in mostlymaths.net about being a 'geek of all trades'. He also happens to be the senior editor in the What's on iPhone network: any complaints go to him!